Peugeot Celebrates a Decade of the i-Cockpit

This year, Peugeot is celebrating a decade of the i-Cockpit—one of the French carmaker’s most distinct design features that’s been standard on all their cars since the first-generation 208.

With the appointment of Gilles Vidal as Head of Design, Peugeot pushed for a new era in their design, culminating with the i-Cockpit. Since then, i-Cockpit hasn’t stopped evolving, but it does retain four key features throughout:

• Compact steering wheel
• Instrument cluster located above the steering wheel
• Large high-definition touchscreen in the driver’s line of sight; 
• Series of piano keys or toggle switches allowing for quick access to main comfort functions.

These four key features were decided by Peugeot to give the i-Cockpit a three-level arrangement based on the human body for optimal ergonomics and driver comfort.

• Eyes: the information falls within the driver's line of sight so that the driver does not need to take their eyes off the road.
• Hands: the materials are pleasant to the touch, the assembly is well controlled, and the tactile or physical controls are well-placed. The shifter is intuitive and ergonomic. The associated steering wheel paddles allow the driver to change gears manually from time to time without losing the automatic function.
• Body: the passenger compartment forms a cockpit that wraps around its occupants. The front seats provide excellent comfort and support.

According to Peugeot, i-Cockpit works simply because they’ve accumulated anthropometric data on a global scale.

In their research, they’ve noticed that it isn’t the driver’s height that matters, rather it’s their chest to leg ratio that needs to be assessed. For example, some people have a longer torso compared to their leg length. But for others, it’s quite the opposite... If the average height of a man is 1.76 meters, the length of his torso varies from 87 to 98 centimeters. This has a direct impact on the positioning of his vision.

This anthropometric data has made it possible to calculate the range of adjustment for the seats or steering wheel, in order to reinforce the feeling of being in a cocoon and optimize on-board ergonomics, whatever the driver’s size.

The latest iteration of the i-Cockpit is called 3D Peugeot i-Cockpit, found in the all-new Peugeot 208. As in past designs, information is presented within the driver’s line of sight, however, with the 3D Peugeot i-Cockpit, the instrument cluster projects information like a hologram. This information is dynamic and animated: getting closer to the eye depending on the degree of importance or urgency, and potentially increasing driver reactivity by half a second.